JEFF EDELSTEIN: Time to take control of America away from the wealthy

The definition of “plutocracy,” courtesy of Merriam-Webster: 1) government by the wealthy 2) a controlling class of the wealthy.

OK. Now that we’ve got English class out of the way, let’s move on to math class.

According to a study from The Center for Responsive Politics, the average United States Senator has a personal wealth of $14 million, while an average member of the House has a personal wealth of a shade under $7 million.

The average American household — and this includes everyone — has a personal wealth of about $57,000, according to a New York University study. Nearly 40 percent of all Americans have a personal wealth below $10,000, while over 35 percent of the entire nation’s wealth is tied up in the top 1 percent of Americans, 63 percent of the wealth in the top 5 percent of Americans, and a full 76 percent of America’s wealth is in the top 10 percent of Americans.

Percentages make your head spin? Mine too. The same New York University study: The average wealth of the top 1 percent is $16.4 million. The next 4 percent, $3.1 million. The next 5 percent, $1.2 million. By the time you get to the bottom 40 percent, their share of the wealth is at NEGATIVE $10,000. (My caps.)

To be clear, then: The average Senator is worth more than almost 99 percent of us. The average member of the House is worth more than about 98 percent of us.

Let me ask you a question: How much money do you give to your federal political candidates? How much do you think the rich give?

Back to English class for a quick refresher: The definition of “plutocracy,” courtesy of Merriam-Webster: 1) government by the wealthy 2) a controlling class of the wealthy.

For the record — and even though common sense dictates it to be true so why even bother discussing it — the income disparity is just as bad as the wealth disparity. Only difference? The wealth disparity has been going on forever. There’s always been a class of ultra-wealthy in America. But the income disparity? It’s getting laughable.

Dig this: According to a paper by David Cay Johnston for TaxAnalysts.com, since 1966 — and I’ll just quote directly here — “for each extra dollar of annual income going to each household in the vast majority, an extra $311,233 went to households in the top 1 percent of the top 1 percent.”

Grasp that: For every extra dollar of annual income that we made — which, in 2011 dollars, is only $59 more than we were making in 1966 — over $300,000 went to the ultra-rich.

So what do we do about this? Unless you are an ultra-believer in Ayn Rand or something, it’s clear from all these numbers we have lost our way as a country. This is not how it’s supposed to be. It’s not how we want it. Speaking personally, I have no problem with rich people. I’d like to be a rich person myself. But the system is so out of whack, it seems impossible to whack it back into where it should be.

So what’s the answer? Tax the rich until they bleed green? That’s not terribly American now, is it? Now sure, I think the ultra-rich should be paying more in taxes than us lower rung folks, but that’s just a Band Aid on a the larger, sociological problem.

So I’ve got an idea. A modest proposal, if you will.

Stop voting rich people into Congress.

Not saying rich people are bad people; just saying rich people are rich and aren’t sweating property tax bills and mortgage payments and credit card bills and home heating oil and everything else about 90 percent of us have to really, truly sweat every month.

So stop voting rich people into Congress.

Vote construction workers and secretaries and gym teachers into Congress. I bet they have a much better handle on what America is, was, and should be than the wealthy do.

But what if the political parties are only offering us rich candidates? Easy. Vote third party.

And then once we get average Americans — you know, a Congress of the people, by the people, for the people — we can go ahead and pass some common sense campaign finance laws so the rich can’t buy themselves candidates.

And then, lastly, as a fail/safe — and this is where we do get a bit Swift-ian in my proposal — let’s put the life imprisonment on the table for any federally elected official convicted of taking a bribe of any shape or form. Severe? Meh. Seems like fair punishment if we’re talking about keeping our Democracy in tip-top shape.

Oh yeah. Democracy. Probably should consult Merriam-Webster on this one. 1A) government by the people.

No need to really go further.A democracy. A man can dream, right? Because as it stands now, we’re a plutocracy. Plain as day. We think we’re given a choice in elections, but we’re not. It’s usually this rich guy vs. that rich guy, and both rich guys have a bunch of other rich guys in each corner.

So we either need to figure out a way to politically wrest power from the wealthy — and it wouldn’t be hard, if, as a giant first step, we simply stopped voting wealthy people into Congress — or I bet the pitchforks and torches come out in our lifetime.